1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical coupling element and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Related Background of the Invention
A core array converter of the invention described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-18013 (Patent Document 1) is disposed between a multi-core optical fiber with a plurality of cores in a common cladding and an optical element with a plurality of light input/output points, and is configured to optically couple the cores of the multi-core optical fiber to the light input/output points of the optical element.
Attila Mekis, et al., “A Grating-Coupler-Enabled CMOS Photonics Platform,” IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 597-608 (2011) (Non-patent Document 1) describes a method using grating couplers as means to optically couple a planar optical waveguide manufactured by the CMOS process, to an optical fiber, so as to achieve optical coupling to the optical fiber having the optical axis in a direction approximately perpendicular to a plane of the planar optical waveguide.